ffwd: ispahan loaf cake
Photo from David Austin Roses
Photo from Pierre Hermé
This week’s cake recipe uses mostly almond flour lightened with beaten egg whites in tribute to its macaron inspiration. The batter is flavored with roses (syrup and extract) and layered in the pan with berries. The syrup gives the cake its shocking pink color!
Rose syrup and rose extract introduced an element of “the hunt” to the game. I set out to the Middle Eastern neighborhood in nearby Watertown, hoping to locate the rose syrup. I found many brands of rosewater and many other flavors of syrup, but in the three well-stocked groceries, there was no rose syrup to be found. My next excursion to a well-stocked Indian grocery in Waltham resulted in success! The rose extract was slightly easier to come by. I found it at Sur La Table which is in the nearest shopping mall.
For the fruit layers, I was hoping to use raspberries that we froze last summer, but I seem to have used them up. I found frozen strawberries from last summer, so used those instead of fresh raspberries.
On to the actual cake… I might be in the minority on this one, but this is far and away my least favorite recipe in the book to date. I knew Howard wouldn’t even try it after he took one whiff of the rose syrup still in the bottle. I was so intrigued by it, but I found the taste too flowery and the texture too moist. I even had to bake the cake for an extra 10 minutes before my tester came out clean. As with all doubtful baking, I brought the cake to the office. It got eaten, but no one seemed overly impressed with this one.
I’m eager to know what the other Doristas think. You can find links to their posts here. The recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table.
Happy Spring! First day of spring in Lexington gave us light snow after an 8-inch snowfall earlier in the week. Ugh! In January, I’d be delighted. In March, I’m annoyed.
You might not be able to see it, but there is snow falling… on March 21!
ffwd: orange-scented lentil soup
Without any doubt, lentil soup is my hands-down favorite kind of soup. I have multiple favorite recipes and rotate between them, but I’m not fixated on only those recipes and often try something new.
This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie is yet another variation on lentil soup: Orange-Scented Lentil Soup to be more specific. The basic recipe was typical, but this version’s flavorings were a little exotic. Dorie adds orange peel, chopped fresh ginger, coriander seeds, peppercorns, and a clove.
This wasn’t my favorite lentil soup ever. I doubt it will make a repeat appearance in my kitchen. It wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t wow me. The only liberty I took was to use just a quart of chicken stock because I know the soup recipes in this book can be too thin for my taste.
For one thing, this soup is pureed. I prefer whole lentils in my soup. Also, I used an immersion blender because Dorie said it would be chunkier that way. However, I had my usual trouble with that tool. It never seems to do the job I want. I never get the pot size right and usually make a big mess and cover myself and the stovetop with soup.. In addition to not liking the lentils pureed, another problem was that the immersion blender left noticeable pieces of orange peel and ginger and didn’t do anything to the whole spices. I didn’t really like the surprise of an entire coriander seed or peppercorn as I swallowed a spoonful of soup.
I served the soup topped with a dollop of yogurt and some crumbled bacon, yet even the delicious toppings didn’t make the soup a winner. (Note: if you want to try a winner recipe, check out the recipe for Spanish Lentil and Chorizo Soup in the most recent issue (March/April) of Cooks’ Illustrated magazine. It’s excellent.
You can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. I also found the recipe on-line here. To see what other bloggers thought of this week’s recipe, follow their links here.
A Plateful of Happiness 